Sunday, 5 February 2017

A country that works for everyone

Earlier this morning my partner read to me a Facebook post from someone he works with. The guy who posted this is employed as a funeral assistant by a large company of funeral directors in South London. He drives the limousines and is one of the men who carry the coffin from the hearse into the church. It is physically demanding work and can have a great emotional impact too, being surrounded by grieving families all day, every day. It is not the type of job I (or I suspect many of my blog readers) would want to do. For this work he is paid around £22,000 a year (probably improved by some occasional overtime). On this money he pays his rent and supports his two children.Here is what he posted on Facebook today, obviously I have protected his identity:

Guys like this, working hard and doing their best for their families and kids, for what many of us would consider a very basic wage, are all around us, not just in the less economically vibrant areas of the UK. In fact, I suspect struggling to make ends-meet when you are surrounded by money and success makes it an even harder pill to swallow.

I don't know this man and have never met him. Steve, my partner, does. Apparently he is a loving family man with no strong political leanings whatsoever, other than a feeling he is working his balls off for little gain and no quality of life. He voted for Brexit and feels politicians have all let him down. Who can blame him?

When the Elite sit around licking their wounds and wondering what caused Brexit and Trump, they need to remember that for every Public Affairs consultant earning £100,000 a year there are 1,000 guys hidden away trying to keep their home and families together on one fifth of that. When Theresa May speaks of "A country that works for everyone" this chap and probably hundreds of thousands like him will hopefully listen in hope. If we are to regain their trust and their votes we need to act. The rewards for doing so will not only transform millions of lives but will also demonstrate that politics really can be a force for good.